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National Poetry Slam
The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and France participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and takes place in a different US city. The first ever National Poetry Slam took place in 1990 in San Francisco.Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. Soft Skull Press. "Chapter Six: Playing Nice; The First National Poetry Slam" Page 45. ISBN 1-933368-82-9. It was organized by poet Gary Mex Glazner and featured three competing teams: Chicago (birthplace of slam), New York (Nuyorican), and San Francisco (host city). It has been held every year since. Currently, the event is run by Poetry Slam Incorporated and requires registration to participate in. In 2011, the National Poetry Slam will take place in Boston. Previously, the National Poetry Slam has been held in San Francisco (1990 & 1993), Chicago (1991, 1999 & 2003), Boston (1992), Asheville (1994), Ann Arbor (1995), Portland (1996), Middletown (1997), Austin (1998, 2006 & 2007), Providence (2000), Seattle (2001), Minneapolis (2002), St Louis (2004), Albuquerque (2005) Madison, Wisconsin (2008), West Palm Beach, Florida (2009) and St. Paul (2010).Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. Soft Skull Press. "New York City Poetry Slam Teams" Page 366-369. ISBN 1-933368-82-9. From 1990 to 2007, the National Poetry Slam held an "individual" poetry competition (known as "indies") simultaneously with the team competition, with the poets earning the highest ranking individual poems during the first two days of competition moving on the semifinal and final rounds. The first ever winner of this event was Patricia Smith, who would go on to win the Individual National Poetry Slam Championship title a record four times.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: Past NPS Winners page Starting in 2004, Poetry Slam Inc (PSI) decided to host a separate event called the Individual World Poetry Slam (iWPS), in which solo poets (not teams of poets) competed for the championship title.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: iWPS page Because of the popularity of iWPS and to avoid the confusion of two "individual" poetry slam titles being awarded ever year, Poetry Slam Inc. decided to cancel the "indie" competition at the National Poetry Slam.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: NPS FAQ page In 2008, the "Indie Finals" was replaced with the "Group Piece Finals," in which the teams with the highest ranking group pieces (multi-voice poems featuring more than one poet) competed for the title. Only teams who weren't already eligible for NPS semifinals were allowed to compete, with New York, NYC-Urbana being the first Group Piece Finals championship team. Also in 2008, the Women of the World Poem Slam (WOWPS) was introduced, in which only female and female-identified poets are allowed to compete.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: WOWPS page The first WOWPS was held in Detroit, Michigan and the first WOWPS champion was Andrea Gibson.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: WOWPS News page The National Poetry Slam has also been the subject of several feature length documentaries, including the 1998 Paul Devlin film SlamNation, and the 2006 Kyle Fuller and Mike Henry film Slam Planet. National Poetry Slam Results by Year Team Finalists Individual Finalists Women of the World Poem Slam References External links * National Poetry Slam 2008 Website * Official Poetry Slam Incorporated Homepage * SF Hosting Poetry Slam Category:Performance art Category:Slam poetry Category:Spoken word Category:Poetry organizations